The Noida Extension Flat Owners Welfare Association (NEFOWA) ,a Noida based Welfare Association for homebuyers, have demanded that the Tribunal should set up a bench in Greater Noida to be more accessible to homebuyers, since the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP RERA) has been functioning out of Lucknow for the last four months.

The members state that at least 30,000 complaints for various builder projects have been made from Noida and Greater Noida so far but the outreach of RERA to more buyers could only increase if the distance is bridged between the court and the buyers.

For each complaint, the hearing is being scheduled at least twice or thrice if not more. For the buyers who have complained, this entails that they visit Lucknow a many times the hearing is scheduled. Most hearings are during weekdays so people have to take leave from work to attend these. Because Noida and Greater Noida are construction heavy sites, at least a bench of the Tribunal should be located here.

RERA has been constituted to protect the interests of the buyers, so primarily it shouldn’t it be accessible? So far almost 80% RERA Complaints are being made from Noida and Greater Noida as these two cities have the highest concentration of new apartments.

The admission of the insolvency petition filed by the Bank of Baroda, as against Amrapali Sillicon Valley project, in NCLT Allahabad, sent shock waves to the home buyers, who had invested in the project. Whilst, CREDAI stepped in and offered to complete the unfinished projects of Amrapali Sillicon Valley, the homebuyers objected to the same and requested the Noida Authority to take over the unfinished projects. Just when the company lost one of its precious projects to bankruptcy, now there is another one in the ‘beeline’. Ultra Homes an Amrapali company has too gone in for insolvency resolution. Its once again the Bank of Baroda, one of the lenders to the commercial project in Greater Noida which had moved the National Company Law Tribunal to recover its dues. Under the Ultra Homes project, Bank of Baroda, the financial creditor has outstanding dues of Rs 36.88 crore. The company is constructing a hotel, a mall and a commercial IT space. It had borrowed Rs 288 crore from banks. It is reported that the company had so far returned Rs 400 crore with interest to banks, but still owes Rs 117 crore. The principal bench of NCLT, Delhi, issued the order on the Financial Creditor’s plea and appointed an Insolvency Resolution Professional to act on behalf of the financial creditor and suggest the best possible way to recover the debt, keeping the value of the property intact. IRP would have to find a solution in 180 days, which could be extended to another 90 days. On failure to find an appropriate solution, the company would go in for bankruptcy proceedings. Could IRP suggest a solution by finding a new investor who is ready to infuse capital to service the bank debt and other liabilities? Can the IRP also seek lending banks to reschedule the debt repayment, or take a hit on the principal amount? Or would the Bank recover from the Company’s asset which includes unsold space and un utilised land?

Home buyers of the Amrapali Centurion Park, in greater Noida, today moved to the Supreme Court challenging the insolvency proceedings against the Amrapali Sillicon Valley, claiming that the proceedings would directly affect their project. Around 70 homebuyers, had filed a Writ Petition arguing that the Sillicon Valley city owns 98.84% shares in the Amrapali Centurion Park and that the same cannot be viewed in isolation. It was reported that the homebuyers feared the Amrapali Centurion Project could also face the prospect of liquidation as its net asset had been devaluated to the extent of disinvestment of its 98.84% shareholding. The homebuyers have sought for quashing the order of NCLT passed on September 4th , 2017 and allow all the court proceedings against the Developer company and its Directors. The homebuyers group had also requested the Apex Court to restrain the Interim Resolution Professional appointed by NCLT for the moratorium period from creating any third party interest in Amrapali Centurion Park. A few of the Centurion Park homebuyers had moved to the National Consumer Redressal Forum, against the developers due to delay in delivery of projects and sought compensation in the form of refund with penal interest at 18% per annum. The case is pending disposal, and now with the insolvency being initiated, all the cases are now stayed. Therefore, in a bid to avoid the same, the homebuyers have moved to the Apex Court for appropriate reliefs. Two other companies of Amrapali in Greater Noida – Ultra Home Construction and Amrapali Infrastructure – are facing a similar prospect of insolvency. What would be the outcome of this case? Would SC once again hear the plea of the homebuyers like that of the Jaypee case?

The Insolvency Petition, filed by the Bank of Baroda as against the Amrapali Builders, and the admission of the Petition leading to the appointment of an Insolvency Resolution Professional, was another shocking piece of information, which greatly put the homebuyers to jeopardy. The real estate Apex Body CREDAI, came to the rescue of the Amrapali developers, wherein they stated that they would engage developers and would take up and complete the project. However, this piece of information had not gone well with the homebuyers and they have finally approached the State Government, to not involve CREDAI in the projects. Why did they take this decision? The answer is despite so many instances of erring and defaulting builders, CREDAI had not taken any action, in the favour of the buyers. A delegation of home buyers who are slated to meet the authorities prefer to bring in National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and HUDCO, to take over all the unfinished projects of Amrapali Builders. Would the Government agree to this suggestion? What would CREDAI state over this, particularly, when they aver that they are both buyer friendly and developer friendly?

The Greater Noida Authority has now in a bid to protect the home buyers who are at the lurch, due the stalling of projects leading to a stalemate. The Authority has now proposed to creation of a special relief fund to bail out the stalled realty project of small builders. For this proposal to work, the Government has earmarked Rs. 1500 crores as funds for the use of struck up group of housing projects in Noida. However, a decision on the same is yet to be taken. Once, the clearance is obtained, the Developers would be eligible to take loan from this fund at a low interest rate ranging from 3% to 5% to complete the projects and hand over the possession to the homebuyers. This fund is created to help the builders with poor credit history, who are unable to secure loans from banks. In these case, the Authority would also provide a counter guarantee, after being satisfied of the builder’s repayment capacity. A consultant would be hired, to understand the Financial status of such cases, who would inturn collect all the relevant data of the group housing project, besides validating the project. A financial due diligence would also be conducted to check whether the project is viable and if it could be completed using escrow account of the existing home buyer or if a co – developer has to be appointed through open bids with the consent of the builder. Only when the Authority is convinced that the loans given would be recovered, and the projects would be completed, it would approve the use of special funds.

Would this plan be implemented? How about the large scale developers, given that they are taking the insolvency route to escape?

The case of Insolvency of Jaypee Infratech is getting murkier day by day. More than 100 homebuyers who had invested in the Jaypee Infratech projects are planning to move to Court seeking an interim relief to allow them to stop paying EMIs, until the possession of completed residential units are handed over to them . The home buyers are of the view that they need not pay EMIs for non – eixistent properties. They aver that they merely suspending the payment of EMIs and are not completely doing away with paying. What are the reliefs available to them in this regard? They could either approach the Reserve Bank of India or National Housing Bank for redressal of their issues or they could file a Writ of Mandamus before the respective High Court of Supreme Court. The Courts on hearing them may order interim relief directing RBI and NHB or to the banks directly to stop them from accepting EMI payments. Would the Courts grant the interim relief so prayed for by the home buyers? Would the Apex Bank agree to this?

The Real estate Apex body, CREDAI, has now come up with a new initiative for the aggrieved buyers of the NCR region. In order to facilitate the resolution of conflicts that arise with the non – delivery of constructed homes within due dates and other related issues, the CREDAI has now come up with its consumer redressal cell, whereby a buyer can lodge complaint directly on the CREDAI website for a fair hearing and resolution and consumer resolution platform would process the complaints through internal meetings and discussions to settle matters to serve the interest of the buyer. Why is this initiative by CREDAI? CREDAI has specifically stepped in to resolve the woes of the homebuyers who are suffering due to the delays in delivery of the flats and are in absolute jeopardy of losing out their rights to the secured creditors under the Insolvency procedure. Would the homebuyers flock CREDAI to redress their woes? Would CREDAI be able to solve the issues or redress the complaints received? Would this be beneficial to the realty sector on the whole?

The Minister for housing and Urban Affairs has currently taken up the Issue of the Noida home – buyers in the Jaypee Infratech Case. The admission of the Insolvency Petition as against the Jaypee group by IDBI, sent shock waves to the home buyers across the country. The home – buyers who waited for decades for obtaining the possession of their properties, were visibly agitated and disappointed when the Insolvency Professional was appointed to look after their case, particularly after they had invested around 1600 crores in the properties and had been paying EMI without obtaining possession. Many had pressed their stance before the Supreme Court to stay the insolvency proceedings as against the Builders, and that their consumer cases be resumed, which the Apex Court was pleased to allow. The latest development in this case, is that the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs has decided to take over the issue of protecting the interest of the home buyers in Jaypee Infratech’s 27 projects where the insolvency proceedings were initiated with the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister.

The vital question that arises here is that could the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code be amended to treat the home buyers at par with the lenders to the projects, who have the first right on funds in case of liquidation? Can an amendment help the existing home buyers, given that the case is already admitted and insolvency professional has been appointed? Would many Developers, who are struggling to complete the ongoing projects, also take the IBC route? In that case, what would be the plight of the poor home – buyers? What is the action, that ought to be taken in order to prevent the aforesaid situation?

Thirteen FIRs have been filed against six builders, including Amrapali and Supertech following the visit of a committee of ministers — set up to look into the homebuyers’ issue — to Gautam Budh Nagar on August 30 and 31. The FIRs have been registered against Amrapali, Supertech, Alpine Realtech, Proview group, Today Homes and JNC constructions.

The move came immediately after the two-day meetings held by the committee — comprising industries minister, urban housing minister and minister of state (independent charge) for cane development and sugar mill — with several homebuyers who complained of having put in their hard-earned money in residential projects and were yet to get possession of their homes.

The Officials said they received a total of 22 complaints from several homebuyers during the two-day meetings held by the group of ministers. Out of these complaints, 13 FIRS have been registered. One FIR per project has been registered on behalf of several homebuyers. The builders have been booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC. According to police, the maximum number of FIRs have been registered against Amrapali group.

The FIRs have been filed on the complaints of buyers from Amrapali Leisure Valley, River View, Dream Valley, Golf Homes, Leisure Park, Verona Heights, Centurion Park in Greater Noida, and Silicon City in Noida. The other FIRs are against Supertech in project Ecovillage-2, Alpine Realtech in project Ekdant Welfare Society, Proview group in Technocity Aprtments, Today Homes in Today Homes project, and JNC Constructions in the Park Avenue project.

The UP Government in the most shocking move has completely tweaked and changed the whole concept of RERA. The main purpose of RERA enactment is to bring both the existing or ongoing projects into its ambit apart from new ones. Most of the states have implemented the said rule, but in a shocking move, the UP RERA has completely done with this aspect and has excluded the ongoing projects from its ambit or jurisdiction. In past, reportedly a lot of incidents have been reported in NOIDA, wherein many of the buyers had invested on purchasing an under constructed house and had to wait almost upto a decade to retrieve their homes. Many developers had ruthlessly and unscrupulously cheated the buyers of their property and made them wait endlessly, apart from resorting to the use of manpower and muscle power to scare the innocent buyers. With the advent of RERA, when we expect that the buyers would heave a sigh of relief, there comes an outrageous move of not including the ongoing projects. Does that mean this is the end to the road? Would the buyers accept this move by UP Government?